Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Indian Dal

DAL

I will tell you that my vegan new year actually started on Jan 2. The first day of the year was spent with me sick with a sore throat and fever, mostly sleeping and wandering into the kitchen to see if anything grabbed me.

So, here is the first recipe I tried, which was vegan and also met the 'learn to cook Indian food' on my list

My ex-neighbor who is Indian kindly offered to teach me to cook 'Dal'. She called them lentils but the bag said "toor dal" and they look a lot like the yellow split peas I had bought awhile ago and didn't know what to do with. I'll post the recipe she showed me first and then my next day attempt to make it again.

Dal
cook 1/2 c yellow lentils about 40min, mush slightly with potato masher
in a pan on med heat in olive oil add:
mustard seeds & cumin seeds, cook until mustard 'pops'
curry leaves (4-5)
green chilis (2- one cut up and one visible for her picky kid to pick out, lol)
dice the following vegetables and saute for maybe 7 minutes:
onion, potato,green pepper,carrot,eggplant, green beans, tomato
add pinch of tumeric powder and 1/2tsp corriander powder (or garam masala)
add to dal, salt as needed
boil 5 minutes
add asian parsley (she called it corriander leaves or cilantro)

It was very good- I served it with rice and Zac and Abby liked it

So, the next day I tried it with my limited ingredients I had
cook yellow split peas 30 min
in pan saute onion, can of 'mixed veg' (inc green beans, carrots, peas) from food storage that is about to expire, also a can of potatos)
add garam masala
add to lentils
Pretty good, but it definitely needed SOMETHING- salt?

4 comments:

happytape! said...

you're getting so brave, emily! good job! your version really isn't much different than hers. i can't really tell what it needed, but if you didn't put salt in, you would definitely taste it. beans are really bland, so they always need salt (add after they are cooked all the way). also, i think frozen mixed veggies (rather than canned) would give the whole thing a better texture. did you use yellow lentils, or regular lentils? i've never seen yellow ones at our middle eastern market here. i have used red lentils, but they are really different than the green ones. they are tiny and get mushy really fast. i read through your friends recipe and I think she calls some of her ingredients different things. did you see what curry leaves are? also, i've never heard cilantro called asian parsley.

i'm going to try this this week! thanks!

Emily said...

They are yellow split peas, I think. She called them lentils. Her bag said "Toor Dal" on it from the asian market. Curry leaves... I think they did say curry leaves on the packet.
I've been adding salt before I eat them- they taste good but I want some sort of sauce
I didnt' know about posting my weird recipes here so glad you guys might like them

Kathy said...

I love Indian food. I should try this year too. Yum. That butter chicken sounds good to me RIGHT NOW and it's 9:30 in the morning.

Good for you with all the vegan recipes!

Emily said...

At the asian market yesterday there was a package of 'curry leaves'. The Toor Dal was 'split pigeon peas'